Los Angeles daily herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1884-1890, 1887-06-08
SAN FRANCISCO GOSSIP.
Notable Figures Oh the Streets
The hank of impress
siOns of Bernhardt.


The bank of Nevada-Impres-
sions of Bernhardt.
Editorial Correspondence.
DEAR HERALD:-Probably not for ten
years has San Francisco looked so lively
as now, or given surer indications OF
substantial and growing prosperity. The
old perennial growl has either disap-
peared altogether or dropped to the
minor keys. There are less Ito lets"
plastered on the houses and business
places than at any other time during the
last decade, while the beggar guild has
decreased amazingly. More real estate
is being sold, and at better prices, than
at any time since the great bonanza up.
heaval of lS74-75 and 1876. As an
incident of this revival it may be noted
that many of the old-time millionaires
are getting back to the Golden Gate.
d. o. MILLS AND JOHN W. MACKAY.
Amongst these is d. o. Mills, who
locks as ii ne enjoyed splendid health,
and who appears to have discovered
Ponce de Icons Fountain of Youth. If
not the latter he has at least happened
upon the secret of defying the progress
of age. His step is as light as that of a
base ball fielder, and there are many per-
sons twenty years his junior who are
grayer than he. 1t is rumored that he
is here assisting to wind up the Sharon
estate, and that a portion of that respon-
sibility is connected with very large
holding of stock, the deceased William
having made his money in these dubious
collaterals and being q constant dabbler
| in them.
Nine out Of every ten men you meet
on Pine and Montgomery streets and
Pauper alley are devout believers in the
proposition that the Coast is again upon
the eve of a great stock upheaval,
founded upon new bonanzas which are
asserted to exist in the north end and
middle mines on the Comstock lode.
This idea lends great interest to the
movements of John w. Mackay. who
may be seen any day in the neighbor-
hood of the Nevada Bank, or on Mont
gomery street, or at the Palace Hotel.
Maekay keeps his youth in a quite
remarkable way, throwing Mills far into
the shade in that respect. He might
very readily pass for man of forty five,
and dashing and torceful man OF that
age-a veritable power mentally and
physically-besides. As many of your
readers know nothing about Mackay
physically. while all have heard of him
continually, | will give them a short
pen-picture of him. He is a man of
about the middle height, of graceful
and sinewy build. and without sugges-
ton of embonpoint. His complexion is
fiorid but clear, and suggests the habits
of a person who pays scrupulous atten.
tion to the laws of hygiene. A fair
brow, piercing gray eye, and clothes
cut faultlessly, but of modest hue, COM
plete the leading characteristics of man
who is supposed to have never betrayed
friend or closed his ears to the appeals
of an old "pard." l have seen Mackay
engaged with amiable stimulation of in
terest in conversation with old. time
acquaintance OF his, whom | also know,
and to whom | have occasionally given
largess of -four bits" The man who
owned two.ffths of the original bonanza
interests, whatsoever other changes be
may have undergone, has not been
spoiled by his marvellous good fortune.
To-day be is just as quiet and UMPIRE.
tending as when he slept with his head
on his saddle-bags where Virginia City
now stands, when the Consolidated Vir-
ginia and California bonanzs rs were not.
and when even the Crown Point and
Belcher and earlier deposits had never
been heard of. Since those sumbers,
sought in primitive frontier fashion, the |
Comstock lode has yielded five hundred
millions of dollars in gold aud silver.
and Mackay has handled large slice
of the treasure.
Another of the old bonanza crowd is
daily seen on Montgomery and Pine
streets, viz. James q. Fair For years
he seems to have had very little interest
in stocks, aud he claims to have abso.
lutely nothing to do with them now.
Fair, like Mackay, is quite handsome
man, though OF more robust physique.
His dark whiskers and hair are heavily
shot with gray, but his carriage is erect
and his step light as Of yore. He has
been specially fortunate in all his ven.
lures, having lost nothing with the ex-
ception of the four millions or so he was
obliged to give his wife when he was
divorced from her. So good an author
ity as Hon. A. j. Bryant assured me
that Fair is worth between thirty and |
forty millions of dollars, and that his
instantly available bank account runs
in the neighborhood of seventeen mil |
lions of dollars.
THE NEVADA BANK.
l learn on good authority that the
Nevada Bank is about to pass into the
exclusive control of John w. Mackay.
This institution has had peculiar
history. Originally it wes started by
Flood, Fair, O'Brien and Maekay--the
Bonanza Kings. 1t has never done a
commercial business commensurate
with its undoubted stability.
For years its principal trans.
actions wore made with mining
stocks as collateral; and, Afterwards
Flood built his extensive warehouses AZ
Contra Costa and drifted heavily into
wheat as basis for his banks profits. ,
Bad blood was early developed amongst !
the partners, the first manifestation tax